Barriers
by jandl
Summary: Rose was six when she realized that getting what you want is always hindered in some form...It was then that Rose Tyler decided she hated barriers. Rated T for mild sexual references and language.


**Fandom**: Doctor Who 

**Characters**: Rose, the Doctor (Nine and Ten), Jackie, Jimmy Stone

**Rating**: Strong T for slight language and mild sexual references

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Doctor Who. If I did, the Doctor and Rose would have been a couple after Unquiet Dead…and I would have a whole lot more money than I do.

**Teaser**: Rose was six when she realized that getting what you want is always hindered in some form…It was then that Rose Tyler decided she hated barriers.

**BARRIERS**

Rose was six when she realized that getting what you want is always hindered in some form. She had awoken early and was dying for some toast and marmalade with a spot of tea. In initiating the remedy for her hunger, she had found a strange bloke answering her mother's bedroom door, and the only answer to her query had been a door slammed in her face, and her mother's voice telling her she'd make breakfast when she was good and ready.

It was then that Rose Tyler decided she hated barriers.

* * *

When Rose was twelve, the greatest wish of her heart was a red racing bike she had spotted in one of the local shops. It had chrome wheels, a banana-style seat, and polished steel handles with little pink and blue ribbons coming out of the ends. It was even a ten speed. It was a _big-girl's_ bike; a _woman's bike_. It was perfection.

But her mother said it was bloody stupid to spend almost 300 quid on something that would probably end up being stolen off the estate. She wasn't going to buy it for her. "If you want it, you'll have to earn the money yourself," Jackie mandated to her daughter.

Being too young to hold a job and raise her own money, Rose did the only thing she could. She asked for it in a letter to Father Christmas.

On Christmas morning, Rose squealed with joy when she saw her dream bicycle underneath the Christmas tree. She was too busy crooning and awing over the bike to note her mother's confused expression. It was the only gift under the tree that her mother hadn't bought…

It was then that Rose Tyler decided that, while she hated barriers, it was fun to overcome them.

* * *

When Rose was sixteen, she met Jimmy Stone. She and her mate Shireen had been skipping class to do some shopping when she first saw him. He was standing on the inside of the shop window looking out, and she had been standing outside on the street looking inward, when their eyes connected. Rose had never believed in love at first sight until that moment, but in that second, she could have sworn that he had stolen her soul. He was just over six feet tall, with deep set green eyes, and brown hair with a fringe that kept falling into his eyes. He was older than her, but not too much older, and she couldn't bring herself to care about his age anyway. By the end of the day, he had her number, and she had an invitation to see his band play.

Two months later, they ran into their first real problem as a couple. They barely saw each other because Rose had school during the day, and Jimmy had shows at night. When they did meet up, they argued. Jimmy always said that Rose was condescending about his music and that she couldn't expect him to give it up just so that he could see her. Rose always argued back that they didn't _need_ to see each other all the time. They loved each other, and wasn't that enough?

In the end, Rose decided that the barrier known as school was easily demolished, and dropped out of school entirely. After all, she told herself, Jimmy would be longer lasting than anything she learned for A-levels anyway.

On her seventeenth birthday, Rose forced herself to dispel another barrier. Jimmy had been taking the mickey out of her for weeks because of her bashfulness. In the beginning, the jokes he made had felt like jokes and she had laughed at them, but now his humour had venom and mirth behind it. The jokes had been about her discomfort when it came to sexual intimacy. Jimmy was experienced and Rose wasn't, and whenever he tried to remove her knickers during a snogging session, she couldn't help by smack his hand away.

That all changed on the night of her seventeenth birthday. She knew her coyness about losing her virginity was going to make her lose Jimmy, so she forced herself to get over it. He took her to the local pub and sang a song he had written for her, (although, she didn't find drugs, blatant sexual references, and broken heart ballads very romantic), while she proceeded to drink herself into oblivion in order to trudge up some courage for the rest of the night's activities.

That night, before he dropped her off at the Powell Estates, Rose finally allowed him to shag her in the back seat of his car. It was cramped and uncomfortable, with limbs at odd angles and clothes strewn haphazardly, and Jimmy's guitar case jutting into Rose's back. When all was said and done, Jimmy had gotten shagged a few times, (in his view, a compensation for having to wait so long), and Rose had lost any coyness she had once had about sex.

But, as with most things, one remedy spurs another problem. Once Rose let Jimmy shag her once, it was all he wanted to do. Whenever he came by her flat, he had her on her back the minute her mother left the room. At first, Rose found it exciting, trying to get it done with her mum in the next room and not get noticed. Jimmy got bored with it quickly, however, and was always complaining about not being able to finish before Jackie got back. It was obvious to Rose that Jimmy wasn't going to remain patient for very long. She did the only thing she could think of to do. She moved out of Jackie's flat and in with Jimmy Stone.

Two months later, when the local police knocked on her door, telling her Jimmy had been arrested for drug possession, Rose Tyler couldn't help but think that the barriers she knocked down for Jimmy Stone were some barriers that should have stayed standing a little while longer.

* * *

When Rose was nineteen, she met the most important man in her life. That was the year that she met the Doctor. It was also the year that she came to feel as though there were no barriers, only inhibitions. How could barriers exist with all of time and space at her disposal? It was hard to believe in the impossible when traveling with a 900-year-old alien in a blue police phone-call box that was bigger on the inside than the outside.

But, the Doctor had inhibitions. That much was clear to her. No matter how close she got to him, it always seemed like there was a great, sad secret hidden away in his worn down, leather jacket. She never asked him, but she often pondered on the thought late at night. She knew he was the last of his race. What could he be hiding that was sadder than that?

Whatever it was, it was coming between them, holding her at arms' length and irritating her to no end.

Then, the remnants of the Time War came, and the beast between she and the Doctor didn't just hold her away any longer. It _shoved_ her backwards 200,000 years through time. Rose decided that time was just another barrier, and she was going to drag it down with her bare hands, or die trying.

When Rose became the Bad Wolf and looked into the Time Vortex, she focused on tearing down that one, final barrier between the Doctor and herself. She saw the reason for his pain and isolation, and brought the entire species responsible for it to utter desolation.

What Rose Tyler didn't remember, after the Doctor took the Time Vortex from her in his kiss, was that she had seen a world without barriers--a world where everything was made possible--and it had frightened her with its utter chaos.

* * *

When Rose was twenty, the Doctor was still the most important man in her life. The only differences being that he now look ten to fifteen years younger, he spoke in a different dialect, he dressed differently, and he now had a tendency to lick random objects--a trait his previous incarnation didn't have, at least that Rose knew of.

However, she had a problem with this incarnation that she didn't have with the previous one. He was so damn distracting! While she had had loved him in his previous body, (big ears and all), it was impossible not to stare at this new one. The way he pulled on his ears, and the way he looked in his glasses was just too endearing for words. Her desire for him was starting to affect her decisions and she wasn't sure how much longer she would be able to control herself…

When they got back to the TARDIS after the debacle with the Wire in 1953, she gave in to temptation and pulled his lips to hers. She told herself that it was because she was thankful that he had saved her from being television waves, and not because he had just smiled that "I'm-so-impressive, I'm-a-Time-Lord" smile at her. Whatever the reason, she had done it, and he didn't seem to be complaining. Quite the contrary. He was a willing and active participant. Maybe he was just glad that they were both alive, or maybe he had been wanting to kiss her too. She didn't much care at the moment.

When they parted a few minutes later, his shirt had become unbuttoned and his tie undone, and her hair had fallen down and her lips were slightly swollen. She was panting hard, and his eyes were slightly glazed.

He cleared his throat and Rose couldn't help but stare as his Adam's Apple moved at the motion. She had the insane urge to suck on it, but repressed the action.

"So, where do you want to go next, Rose Tyler?" inquired the Doctor, his voice slightly higher than usual.

Rose stepped closer to him, close enough to feel his breath against her skin. The Doctor was standing as still as a statue, slightly unsure and more than half-tempted to close the distance himself.

"Your bedroom," she answered, standing on her tiptoes and whispering seductively into his ear.

"Are you sure about this, Rose?" asked the Doctor. "I mean, I can't promise you anything. This can't really _mean_ anything. I can't change the way I am. Even for you," he reminded her, his ageless brown eyes staring into her young ones.

"You asked me where I wanted to go, and I told you. I want _you_."

"Your wish is my command," he answered, taking her hand and leading her to his room.

A few minutes later, as she was removing the Doctor's jacket and shirt, and his talented tongue was discovering an erogenous point behind her left ear, Rose became aware that the only barrier between having the Doctor's skin on hers were mere inches of fabric. Rose Tyler always _did_ love destroying barriers, and in her mind, this one was a feat to savour.

* * *

Rose was almost twenty-one the day she said goodbye to the Doctor for the final time at Bad Wolf Bay. That was when Rose Tyler finally grew up.

On that fateful day at Torchwood Tower, Rose had felt the Doctor on the other side of **that** wall. Part of her had hoped, had believed, that if she wished hard enough the wall would disappear; that if she could break through the plaster and wood, he would be on the other side. She _knew_ that the white wall was just another barrier, and she'd made such an art out of tearing them down.

After his projection faded away on the beach, however, Rose accepted the awful truth. There was the whole of time and space between them. And whole other dimensions besides. Her travels through time and space were over, and she would have to focus on having a fantastic life, just as he had asked her to do the first time he had sent her away, oh so long ago.

That day, Rose Tyler learned the hardest lesson of all. That was the day Rose Tyler learned that there are some barriers that just can't be torn down.


End file.
